


New and Different Things

by Halfblood_Fiend



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Denial of Feelings, F/M, I just love them so much!, oblivious idiots, vulcan-human pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24484591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halfblood_Fiend/pseuds/Halfblood_Fiend
Summary: Focusing on the flashback during the episode, "Carbon Creek", the single-mother, Maggie finds herself falling for one of the new strangers in town but when he doesn't do anything about it, she takes matters into her own hands.
Relationships: Maggie/Mestral (Star Trek)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	New and Different Things

**Author's Note:**

> I feel compelled to put this disclaimer here:
> 
> A large chunk of dialogue at the end is taken directly from the episode (because this is a tie-in fic) and it is NOT MINE.
> 
> So that's that on that. Enjoy your stay in my Star Trek sandbox.

Mestral was a _different_ one and that was for certain. Maggie had picked up on it immediately but getting to know him made the differences stand out. He was quiet, and reserved, and kind enough to help Jack with homework whenever her son needed. He was handsome, liked I Love Lucy nearly as much as she did, and always asked her the strangest questions. He surprised her, constantly, in new and unexpected ways.

For one thing, Maggie had had the pleasure of buying Mestral his _first_ ice cream cone. Ever.

When he claimed to have “no knowledge of… ice cream” she didn’t believe him for a second— who in their right mind had never had ice cream before? He _had_ to be teasing her as he sat serenely on the other side of the bar while she served her patrons. It was a usual haunt of theirs, and Maggie pretended not to be flattered that he had turned down Billy’s third offer to play pool just to stay in conversation range. But the _minute_ she realized he wasn’t joking, she called on Billy to “watch the counter for a sec” and all but dragged Mestral down to the corner shop.

“What do they even _have_ where you’re from?” she asked at the checkout, laughing.

Yet, his expression remained dubious at the ice cream counter, all the way until they were back outside. Then when she told him to “go ahead, eat it”—his face! Maggie didn’t think she’d ever, _ever_ , forget the look on his face after he took his first bite. Shock, confusion, a little bit of pain.

“You _like_ this?” he asked, dumbfounded. He rolled his tongue over his teeth, trying to warm them and held the offending cone angled away from him as though it would attack him.

She lost it. “No, no,” Maggie barely managed over a peal of uncontrollable giggles. She shook her head. “You’re not supposed to _bite_ it! You _lick_ it! Slowly! Like this.”

Maggie held up her own chocolate ice cream cone and led by example. She couldn’t believe she was teaching this again to someone else. Jack had been two when he’d learned how to eat an ice cream cone… and six when he could do it without making a mess of himself. She was careful to lap up a drip from the crisp wafer all the way to the top.

Her gaze met Mestral’s dark eyes watching her intently mid lick and she blushed. She looked away quickly and wasn’t quite sure why her stomach had exploded in butterflies.

Oh, it was such a silly feeling. She felt like a teenage girl again, and she did _not_ like it.

There was just a different _way_ that he looked at her. With wonder and curiosity… it had a powerful effect on her and made Maggie feel vulnerable in a way she never had before. Maggie never thought anyone would look at her like that: like she was special and _worth_ watching.

Mestral was kind enough not to say anything about her embarrassment. Instead, he gave his vanilla cone a stern look and tried it again the way Maggie had shown him. This time, he shivered as he licked his lips. Maggie tried and failed not to watch his mouth. “It is sweet,” he said begrudgingly. “I can see the appeal in that, although _not_ in its temperature.” He cast Maggie a look that she thought was unbearably cute, seeming to bat his eyelashes at her.

Her heart swelled in her chest. Grinning, she teased, “Don’t like cold things, huh?” Her eyes flicked to his beanie. “Need to stay _warm_ all the time?”

He ignored her implication and tilted his head. “It is preferred, yes.”

“Well then, I have an idea. How about we add something hot to this. Put that cone on a hot slice of apple pie and you’re sure to love it.”

They raced back to the bar before his ice cream could melt, and Maggie had served him a slice of pie, and he _did_ love it.

But not as much as she seemed to love spending time with him.

She beamed when he entered with Billy after their shifts. She thought about him long after closing and he had left. She wondered about why he seemed so…different. And why she couldn’t seem to convince herself that different was _bad._ Different was supposed to mean, “ _leave him alone, you dummy!”_ because her ex-husband had been “different” once, too.

But she just couldn’t seem to keep herself apart from Mestral, even when her conscience told her that she should.

So, what was she _thinking,_ asking him to come with her and her friends to a baseball game? And just when she had decided so firmly that she needed to stay away, to keep from falling for him.

Maggie _had_ known exactly what she was thinking though: she missed him. And seeing an actual baseball game was yet another thing that Mestral had never done, and it was yet another excuse to see him again since his shifts had increased in the mine.

She was weak and he was the first person she had thought of when Billy offered her tickets.

And for six whole innings, even though she was surrounded by friends, Maggie stayed close to Mestral.

Very close.

Sometimes, she thought, he was like a child— Which was usually not something one looked for in relationships, but in him? It was wonderful, refreshing, and made her almost jealous. How beautiful was it to view the world his way? To be so upbeat and awestruck by every little thing?

Mestral watched the baseball players intently, asked questions often, and shared her popcorn. Maggie was giddy. She couldn’t help smiling at him, leaning towards him, touching his arm lightly to get his attention. Mestral never pulled away from her, and when he gave her his full attention, Maggie would swear she saw stars in those deep eyes of his. But to her great disappointment, he made no moves of his own.

By the seventh inning stretch, Mestral had finished all the popcorn and Maggie volunteered to go get more so she could stretch her legs—and re-evaluate why she was making a fool of herself today.

“I will accompany you,” he said, beginning to rise from his seat.

She saw how his eyes still drifted towards the field, where the mascot had trooped onto the diamond waving emphatically at fans. “No thanks. I don’t want you to miss a moment of your first baseball game.” She urged him back into his seat with her fingers on his shoulder. She was struck suddenly by how badly she wanted to caress his jaw with her fingertips, to feel his skin under hers. She snatched her hand away, before she could do something so silly.

“I’ll keep an eye on her for ya, Mestral,” Billy offered with a sigh. “Ain’t nothin’ going on down there anyways.”

So, there they were, and, _“Mestral, huh?”_ Billy asked her as they stood in line together at the concessions stand. Billy had noticed what Mestral apparently had not.

Maggie worried her lip and sighed. “I should stop trying, shouldn’t I? I keep going back and forth. I just…don’t want history to repeat itself again, you know?”

Billy smirked and shrugged, turning away from her. “It won’t. Mestral is good people even if his ‘business associates’ are a little uptight. Besides, it’s not every day that a dame like you throws herself at someone. You’re a knockout. Ain’t seen you smile like that in a while. Enjoy it. You deserve it.”

“I just don’t want to hurt again. He doesn’t seem all that interested in a ‘dame like me.’”

“Oh? Is that what you think? “Cause I thought that I was stuck at a baseball game with two people that won’t stop flirting with each other but are too damn cowardly to admit it. Time’s a-wastin’, Maggie. If you’re sick ‘a waitin’ for him to get the nerve, maybe you should find some instead.”

She chewed her bottom lip with renewed vigor but considered his advice carefully. Could she do it? Her stomach did nervous flips just _thinking_ about trying to tell him how she felt. And if she couldn’t admit it, what else could she do? _Kiss him?_ There was no _way_ she’d ever be brave enough for that…

“Who knows,” Billy said after a pause, then looked at her with a mischievous glint in his eye, “maybe he’d _like_ a woman with some authority.”

“Stop that!” Maggie laughed, swatting her friend’s arm. “You’re a perv.”

But she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Nor could she stop leaning into Mestral for the rest of the game, bumping his shoulder to share a glance, and acting like she was already on the hook. Maybe she was. Each time she thought she had worked out the right way to tell him, she got cold feet and nerves caught the words in her throat.

Mestral was different, and it wasn’t bad, it was terrifying.

The end of the ninth found their little group gathering up their things with no progress for Maggie.

“Hey, Mestral. Your place is on the way to Maggie’s, ain’t it?” Billy asked. His question—and the too-casual tone of his voice—snagged on Maggie’s already frayed nerves. “I’ve gotta stop somewhere on the way back. Why…why doesn’t she take ya?”

“That would be agreeable if Maggie is so inclined.”

Oh, she was very inclined. Too inclined. Inclined enough to want to _throttle_ that smug smile right off Billy’s stupid mug, except he thought he was so sure that he knew what her answer would be, he was already walking away from them.

He was right, of course.

Maggie couldn’t stop babbling at Mestral as they walked out to her car together, but he listened, good-naturedly.

_Tell him!_

_Don’t you dare tell him!_

_Tell him or you’ll explode!_

The impulse to both leap and flee battled fiercely in her body throughout the whole drive home, persisting even when they were parked across from his house. She was gathering her courage, thinking maybe—just _maybe_ —she could do it.

But then:

“What happened to your…mate?” Mestral asked softly.

Maggie was so stunned by the question’s implication that it hardly occurred to her that his choice of word was strange.

“You mean my husband?” Maggie didn't think her heart had ever raced so fast in her life. It felt like she was having a heart attack. “He...left. I’m still not sure why. He’s just gone.” She didn’t realize how tightly she gripped the steering wheel, or the way her other hand balled into a fist in her lap. Exhaling slowly through her nose, she willed her fingers to relax, tried to reign in some degree of calm.

“I see,” Mestral replied, his tone thoughtful. “I’m sorry.”

And he sounded like he really was. Maggie looked up at him, held his gaze a moment too long. She tried to shrug it off, but Mestral was intense, looking at her in _that way_ again. Faintly, she realized that she had always wanted to be seen like that, and that maybe (and this was a _big_ maybe) Billy had been right.

“Will I see you later?” she asked breathlessly.

And when Mestral nodded, her pulse leapt.

_Say something!_

But she couldn’t find any words. How could she say the things she felt when they sounded strange, even to her? _You make me feel visible and interesting and like I am important in this decomposing, irradiated world._ That was no declaration.

But Mestral was still in the car, his hand lingering on the door handle like he was waiting for something, gaze open and burning.

So Maggie stopped searching for words and did the only thing she could think of to do. She leaned forward—

—And then immediately regretted it.

She spluttered her apologies, blushing furiously, and turned away from her frozen, stunned companion to stare straight forward in the driver's seat.

What an idiot she was to have listened to Billy! What a moron! If someone could die of shame...

“Oh, God…”

“Please, I— I was simply surprised,” Mestral said with the hint of a stammer. “It was...very pleasant.”

_“Pleasant?”_

“Wasn’t that an appropriate response?”

“Well it’s been a while since I kissed a man, but still. I was hoping it’d be a little bit more than _‘pleasant_.’”

He paused for a beat. “I _did_ say ‘very pleasant’.”

Maggie felt hysterical laughter rise in her throat. She couldn’t tell if it was relief or horror. Somehow, she _still_ didn't know what this meant for them, justlike being a teenager all over again—sure, Mestral maybe liked her, but did he _like-like_ her? For a moment, she considered kissing him again… until she caught sight of T'Mir out of the corner of her eye.

And judging by Mestral’s face, that was the end of that.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I may have accidentally changed the episode a bit because I didn’t re-watch before editing this and according to Billy’s wiki, he “was going to a baseball game that Mestral couldn't attend” but I’d already written it all and fuck it, what’s canon anyway?? There’s a part two... but it’s not done it’s v sad. Might throw it out there anyway tho.


End file.
